


The Life That No One Tells

by Oyanachi



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen, Modern Era, Nationverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:07:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26947951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oyanachi/pseuds/Oyanachi
Summary: Although Prussia's doubtful and not really wants to be back at a meeting hall for the first time in a very long time, Germany managed to convince him to go with him. His brother promised him it has something to do with his first request, which is finding some new books to read.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13
Collections: Hetalia-Writers-Monthly





	The Life That No One Tells

A quick knock on the door was enough in Prussia’s opinion to come in Germany’s office. He had never waited for any approval from his younger brother, especially since he only used to scan the book shelves or to stretch out on the sofa. For someone known as a show-off loud guy, he was actually pretty quiet when he was looking for some reading.

Today was no exception. Germany was lost in his work, glasses on his nose, relentlessly writing words after words. The radio was broadcasting some classic tunes while outside the orange and red leaves were softly dancing around in the autumn air. Coming in, Prussia whistled along the music and went straight to the book shelves to have a look on his future adventures or thoughts. Truth was Prussia was a bookworm. When you got the time of a nation ahead of you, you had plenty of time to read everything and anything. And so much more when you’re still there for some reason and yet nowhere on any maps but on history books’ ones.

Prussia put a finger on each spine.

Already read.

Already read.

Already read…

Prussia sighed. He didn’t dare to believe it at first but by the end of the shelves he could only admit it: he had already read all the books here. And all the books in his own room, in the living room, in his secret room, in the attic, in the toilets…

-Say, Lud’, do you have any book in your room?

Germany didn’t even break off work.

\- They’re all in this room, Gilbert.

Prussia clicked his tongue, annoyed. He slumped onto the sofa, legs on the armrest.

-Which means I’ve read everything in this house. Damn!

-I’m sure not.

-You bet! I’ve even read our whole encyclopedia collection. Took me almost five decades but I’ve done it.

-Try literature from somewhere else.

-Where to start? That is the question. Besides, let me remind you although we could speak and understand each other around the globe, that’s not the case for written words.

There was a silence only broke by the classic tunes from the radio. Germany’s pencil running on the paper eventually stopped. Germany turned back to Prussia and took off his glasses.

-Next meeting with the others, come with me. I’ll show you something.

-Pff! I have no interest whatsoever in your little chats, sorry not sorry. It’s been a long time since we’ve been part of the real discussions, if you know what I mean.

Germany pinched his lips.

\- I do not agree with this statement but come with me. It really has something to do with books. I promise.

Prussia remained silent.

-Look, you’ve refused to come for decades now, always pretending…

Prussia was about to interrupt his brother, but Germany stopped him right away and insisted.

\- Always pretending you have better things to do. But this time, just for this time, come with me and I’ll show you something.

For a moment, Prussia was still silent but then grinned and tousled Germany’s hair.

-Oh! Little Lud’ has a surprise for his awesome bro!

Germany raised his eyes before going back to his work.

oOo

In front of the meeting hall, Prussia actually felt weird. It’s been such a long time since he was attending one of those world or continental meetings, probably almost a century now. He was still bitter of the last time when the humans he was supposed to represent turned him down or even forgot about him. At the last minute, they told him to go and talk somewhere else with others like him. Prussia wasn’t sure if they meant nations or crumbling entities…

But here he was again, in front of a meeting hall, a massive modern building with a whole glazed wall. He followed Germany who was loaded with huge folders, and couldn’t help but commenting everything he saw. They passed the human officials who didn’t look at them at all. Little by little, the people turned to be more fellows he cheerfully greeted than strangers. There were still unknown faces sometimes but he do feel deep down they were like him. Arriving in a lively crowded cafeteria, Germany took Prussia to bulletin boards aligned close to the coffee machine. A woman was already there, blowing the cup of coffee while looking at the schedule pined up on the boards.

-Hi there, Ludwig!

-Oh, hi María Juanita. How have you been?

-Great! I brought some of my coffee for the machine. Don’t hesitate to help yourself!

-Sure, thanks.

-Well, see you at the trade meeting then.

She smiled and left them.

-Who was she?

Prussia was frustrated to ask this question and to show his lack of knowledge about others nations.

-Colombia.

-She sounds like a sweetheart.

-She is.

Prussia was wondering what was his brother’s purpose bringing him here. He didn’t feel at his place. He had nothing to do with trade meeting and such. He was completely out of the world wide discussions. Maybe he could be part of the European ones but he wasn’t even sure of that.

-Here, have a look.

Germany was pointing at many schedules pined up. Although at first some of them were presenting a list of meeting sessions about trade, diplomacy and other very serious talks he didn’t feel he had any part to play in as a former nation, there also were many cultural and environmental programs with talk sessions about very specific topics. Some of them were lectures made by a nation; others were more like club meetings. There actually were so many things happening it was for sure impossible to attend everything. It was a total discovery for Prussia. At the time he was still attending meetings, those were actually more austere and there were no aside ones. How on Earth did he miss that?

-Oh! Gilbert! How lovely it is to see you, dear!

Prussia turned back right before being embraced by a joyful France who kissed him on each cheek.

-It’s been a while.

-Well… I thought it would be awesome to see how little Lud’ works, you know! It seems it’s “take your brother at work” day.

-I wanted to show him the clubs, Germany clarified.

France giggled. Then, he put an arm around Prussia’s shoulders.

-Alright! What about coming at mine at 1pm? I’ll talk about the wonders of Limoges porcelain.

-Ah ah! You think I don’t already know everything about your pots?

-Oh, if you say so!

Soon, Canada showed up and told them the trade meeting was about to start. All official nations had to attend this one. But obviously not Prussia. He took his time to have a look on the long list of clubs and talks. Right after the trade meeting, another one on literature was taking place. That’s what he was looking for!

Prussia was the first one to show up in the small room. The curtains were still down and the chairs on the table. Waiting for the others, although he didn’t know who, he decided to prepare the room. Later, while he was putting the kettle on, Latvia, Iceland and Czech came in. They were so not expecting someone to be already there that they jumped out of surprise.

-Prus…sia?

-Oh come on, guys! Gilbert! No need for official names among us.

-It’s just that it’s been a very, very long time since we saw you, Latvia said frankly, we don’t remember your current human name.

-And you didn’t seem to have got another one since… well, ages, Czech added with a shrug.

Prussia smirked.

-Still love you two speaking from the heart.

-Whatever. Nice to see you around ready to talk about books. Please, have a seat.

-Wow! You’ve prepared everything. Thanks, Iceland said.

-That’s right; unlike us he has all the time in the world.

-Raivis, please… It’s just that I’m too awesome not to do something.

-Ah sorry, but I’m more a coffee guy.

-I know Colombia has brought her coffee if you wanna.

Iceland didn’t think twice, nodded and went away.

Prussia sat casually, bringing a leg on the other one and putting an arm on the back of the chair.

-So… how many will be joining us today?

-Hm… I know Kiku wanted to come for sure, but he has already something to do. Something about flowers, if I remember correctly. Maybe he’ll just show up later.

-That’s unfortunate but there’re so many other things happening at the same time. We only want to talk and share about books without any special topic so… I assume we’re not that attractive.

-When you put it like that, Raivis… Czech sighed.

Iceland was back with a hot cup of coffee.

-We don’t care what people are expecting from us. The fewer, the quieter.

He glanced at Prussia.

-Well… maybe not.

Everyone took place and for a weird reason Prussia felt thrilled about it. He had always thought he was surrounded and that his current life was pretty busy, even though he didn’t have anything official to do. But as he was sat in this room along Czech, Latvia and Iceland, he realized he actually hadn’t been sharing any real time with people for years. It had only been random talks with people passing by Germany’s house.

Czech clapped her hands.

-Alright, guys, our literature club talk officially starts know. What have you read lately? What would you like to read? What have you been written? Tell us everything.

-Why not starting with Gilbert since it’s his first time?

-Good idea, Emil.

-Actually, I changed last week for Sigurður.

-Didn’t you chose this one already a century ago or so? Latvia asked.

-And?

-That’s redundant.

-I’m redundant then.

Iceland and Latvia turned to Prussia whose ego filled with proud.

-You wanna know about my taste in books? Goodness, where do I even start? I’ve read so many things in my long life, so many from epic poems to Romantic novels, from humanist essays to modern plays. One of my biggest proud is for sure the whole encyclopedia collection we have at home and that I’ve read. Entirely. What about that?

-Sigurður knows his whole sagas by heart.

-That’s the only thing I’ve got my teeth into for centuries. Of course, I know them by heart, Iceland mumbled.

-And now? Czech asked Prussia.

-Well… now, I’m looking for something new to read. Fact is I’ve read everything at home because, you know, I’m a big reader.

-What are you looking for? What language can you read? Maybe mine if you haven’t forgotten about it…

-I can advise you some poets. That’s my thing!

-If you like crime stories, I’m pretty sure my authors are translated into German.

Prussia crossed his arms.

-I’m looking for something… kinda deep. Something that will be gut-wrenching for me, that talks to me. Something that will explore who we are deep down.

-Who we are? You mean… as personifications?

-Yeah! That’s maybe the only thing I haven’t read about!

Everyone turned silent. What Prussia was talking about plunged them into deep thoughts. He had just talked about something they’ve never realized before. In the course of history, as their existence had been such a mystery, it had never been recorded by any author from anywhere. Or at least, they didn’t know about it. Without meaning to, Prussia had opened a box that happened to be empty in them. Of course, personification of a nation had been there maybe since the beginning in paintings for instance, but that wasn’t them. That wasn’t what they looked like for real, neither it was about them, how they were feeling and what they were living. Humans had always been creating for themselves and there was nothing to blame about but fact is, no nation, no entity took the time to create something that was about themselves.

-Oh shit.

Iceland said out loud what everyone else was thinking.

-We have our diaries though… Many of us write them.

-But they’re our personal thoughts. We won’t let people read it just like that. That’s weird. At least, I won’t.

-Speak for yourself, Raivis! Prussia smirked. Mines are gold and would just blind people.

Czech crossed her arms and stood up for Latvia.

-Oh, sorry Mister Outdated Knight. Not everyone only talks about their victories in their diaries. But if yours are so great, then write a book. You know what they say: if the book doesn’t exist yet, someone has to do it.

Prussia sat up straight, a spark in the eyes.

-Is that a challenge?

-It’s up to you to tell.

oOo

These words made Prussia enthusiastic. As soon as he was back at home, he went straight away to this special room where all the walls where covered with diaries in chronological order from ancient times. He was set on reading all of them again, even though the first ones were in bad shape, with yellow papers and almost gone ink. For days and days, he spent his time in this room to the point he sometimes forgot to eat and sleep. Fortunately, Germany was here as a reminder.

Prussia told nothing about this project to his brother. He kept it secret from everyone. Although everyone as Czech thought he only wrote about his proud and glory, he was no exception and actually wrote everything in those diaries, even the saddest moment of his life, his doubts and fears, his failures and feelings. The truth was his diaries were the same as Latvia’s: full of personal thoughts. He only happened to speak too soon. That had always been his problem.

Weeks became months and soon even a year. Prussia didn’t catch the track of time. The sensation of time going by was lost long ago in his case, but even more as he was focused on this project. What was supposed to be just a compilation of entries from his diaries turned to be a philosophic introspection about their condition. The whole 500 pages he presented a year and a half later to Czech, Iceland, Latvia and some others amazed them and they quickly tried to figure out how publishing it. This was maybe the very first book about nations by nations.

**Author's Note:**

> Well... in all honesty, I'm not really sure to like what I wrote. I mean the 'how' and not the 'what'. I really doubt it's correctly written but I like the idea behind. Long story short, and I've just started talking about that, but I'm going through something very strange and to be fair quite painful about writing lately. Just so you know, I'm quite in a blur ^^'
> 
> A-ny-way x)
> 
> This OS is for the Hetalia Writers Monthly and that's pretty cool that this event exist in my opinion.


End file.
